December 26, the day after Christmas, is also the 48th birthday of Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

President Muhammed Buhari’s appointment of Babatunde Fashola as Minister of Power, Works and Housing was recently described as a “masterstroke” in one of the daily newspapers.

Quite apart from the fact that the assessment of the property deal involving High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo, as regards the National Maritime University, clearly indicates that Tompolo was merely legitimately paid what he negotiated with the Federal Government on the amount he was willing to sell his property as take-off site for the institution, certain alarming matters have been thrown up.

King Solomon, in one of his documented sayings of wisdom, says: “The glory of the youth is their strength and the beauty of the old men is their grey head” – Proverbs 20:29. When I take a survey at N-I-G-E-R-I-A, I ask myself questions about the meaning of the saying. How well are the youth channelling their strength to good use thereby shining forth in their glory? Do the older and more experienced outsmart the youth in the regular daily contest for survival? These are questions to be addressed going forward.

IF many people were surprised at the merger of Power, Works and Housing into a consolidated super ministry, very few if at all would dispute the choice of Babatunde Raji Fashola as the right man to head the new ministry.

IN recent years, the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has played a critical role in stabilising Nigeria’s financial market through innovative programmes. The turbulence that the banks faced in their continuous growth to maturity, which was triggered by both the nation’s quest to modernise the banking system and global financial meltdown, have been effectively overcome – to the relief of both depositors and the financial system. And, generally, the Corporation has charted a path that has taken the deposit insurance scheme (DIS) within the country to enviable heights.

Nigeria is a country known to be plagued by extreme poverty, illiteracy and disease despite the overwhelming abundance of natural resources and wealth God has endowed her with. It has defied logic, no matter how adjusted, that despite her wealth that should evoke envy from even great nations like the United States of America, Britain, France etc, her people still wallow in abject poverty, dwell in squalor, left uneducated, oppressed by the rich and powerful who often use state powers and connections to pass and entrench laws that further dispossess the people of their dignity and humanity in order to promote their own selfish agenda, and sometimes have the people embalmed alive as a result of the absence of basic health facilities and other infrastructure necessary for the ennoblement of man and his environment.

As the new reality of cost of doing business in Nigeria begins to dawn on operators in the private sector of the economy and potential foreign investors, it is imperative for the new managers of the economy to take another look at the raft of huge fines doled out by various regulatory authorities to major players in the private sector in recent time.

THERE is one prediction that is formidably incontestable: the APC is poised to win the 2016 governorship election in Edo state overwhelmingly. This projection is founded on the pristine truth that the PDP is now rapidly vegetating specie.

THE stage is set for the country’s foremost indigenous drilling company, Altantic Drilling Energy Concepts Nigeria Limited, to get back on course, thanks to the recent submission of its plan to settle outstanding commitments to its financial and production partners to the authorities.